04 August 2010, 21:33 Society

The journalist who threw his shoe at the mayor of Samara is running for mayor himself

On Wednesday, in the building of the Samara city election commission, the conflict between journalist Vitaly Papilkin and local mayor Viktor Tarkhov took a new turn. Last October, Papilkin gained nationwide fame by throwing a shoe at Tarkhov during a press conference at the Interfax agency.

As Gazeta.Ru learned, the opponents met at the city election commission. Both Papilkin and Tarkhov came there to submit documents necessary to register as candidates for the position of mayor, whose elections will take place in October 2010. As Papilkin himself told Gazeta.Ru, while he was waiting for his turn in the office of the chairman of the city election commission, Viktor Tarkhov appeared in the room, accompanied by security.

“When they saw me, the mayor’s bodyguards tried to force me out into the street,” Papilkin said. “But they didn’t succeed.” Then I went out to smoke, and when I tried to go inside again, Tarkhov’s guards surrounded me. All this was filmed by a cameraman from the Guberniya television company. Noticing this, one of the bodyguards knocked the camera out of the operator’s hands and broke it. All this happened in front of other journalists. I still made my way into the GIK premises, but, again in front of witnesses, I was forcibly dragged out of there by the mayor’s guards. As a result, I was never able to submit the documents and will do it tomorrow. And regarding the actions committed by the guards, I will most likely write to the prosecutor’s office . Moreover, I have video evidence of these outrages.

According to Papilkin, he associates such aggression on the part of the mayor’s bodyguards with revenge.

“After the incident with the shoe, four members of Tarkhov’s security service were fired and I repeatedly received threats from unknown people who told me about some kind of “combat brotherhood” and that I had acted ugly,” Papilkin told Gazeta.Ru.

The journalist who threw his shoe at the mayor of Samara is running for mayor himself - Gazeta.Ru